AARP is working to ensure that older adults who have lost their jobs and hard-working Pennsylvanians who are struggling to make ends meet can find the affordable health care they need. Accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid in PA will give these families the security of knowing they can get the health care they need and at the same time boost our economy, create jobs, and help keep the doors open at the hospitals that serve our residents. By expanding Medicaid, Pennsylvania can help those who have lost their health insurance receive coverage if their incomes are less than $15,000 (133 percent of the federal poverty level). For the first three years beginning in 2014, the federal government will pay the entire cost of the state's Medicaid expansion, with the government's match rate gradually dropping beginning in 2017, decreasing to 90 percent in 2020 and thereafter.

Pennsylvania should follow the lead of more than 40 states which have addressed pension funding problems by modifying defined benefit programs and not engaging in wholesale changes to retirement programs for state workers and teachers, according to a panel of state and national pension security advocates briefing lawmakers and reporters at the state capitol today.